Episode Transcript
Nina Huchthausen (00:02.35)
Hello everyone and welcome to the Makers Business Type podcast. My name is Nina. I'm the founder of the Makers Business Type. And in today's episode, I am super excited to talk about a topic that I had several conversations about in the past few days. So was like, man, this is the topic. This is what everybody is really wondering about. So let's talk about it. And that is the topic of how can I strategically reach out
to either a service provider that sells to my audience, but not exactly what I sell because, of course, we are product, or a product brand that might sell to my audience, but not exactly what I'm selling. Otherwise, it's competition. But how can I pitch to them and set up and leverage that relationship and ultimately
tap into their audience because either the service provider or that brand already has an established audience that they're selling to. And hopefully it's a big one. And how do I can then let them sell for me? Because ultimately, if you can just find and build out your sales army with people who are connected to your audience and let them sell for you, that means more time for you.
less time hustling and stressing out about whether next month is going to be a good month because you people out there selling. And if they run out of product, they will just place a reorder, which means consistent revenue recurring. And ultimately, which is we just got another really awesome win from our clients, Team Kana Oil. They were away for two and half weeks, came back, computer broke, couldn't work.
They probably worked for like a week and a bit. And they had a superb sales month. We're talking close to 30 grand for not having worked at all. In comparison to last year, they took home $900 in revenue. And what they focused on for 12 months straight is building out strategic partnerships in retail, service providers, and with brands.
Nina Huchthausen (02:27.203)
Now in this episode, I don't want to go into building strategic retail partnerships, but building out brand partnerships as well as service partnerships. Now, how can we address that? Key question that I got just texted from a prospect on our page was, hey, so how can I approach a gym?
where who how can I approach a gym? I'm sorry, I want to reword it. So it's we don't know. So it's it's anonymous. And they serve women and it will be my dream partnership. And I want them to see my products as the ultimate health range that they need to have in their lives every day. In a nutshell, amazing question. So
What I would like to talk to you guys through is very action focused, meaning here are the key steps that you want to think through and can then immediately implement in your pitch. And ideally in just in your email outreach, when you start approaching a brand that you would love to collaborate with or service provider who can do the selling for you. All right.
Let me talk you through. So the first step that you want to put on your partnership pitch success step list. Yeah. Is a little bit of research. Now, by the way, I will give you the link to my list and you can download it if you like. And you find that link in the show notes. Okay. That was a bit wonky. Let me get started. All right. Let's start again. Your partnership pitch success step list. Step number one.
So you want to do a little bit of research on their customers, on their exact audience. Because oftentimes when we look at a service provider, let's say in their case, it's the gym, right? The gym is a service provider that don't sell products, but they provide the service of the equipment and the studio and probably a whole bunch of, they might sell courses.
Nina Huchthausen (04:54.767)
And if we're like, we want them to sell product for us, the first thing we really have to nail is get clarity on who are their customers. Who is their audience who goes to that gym? And that might not just be one, but it might be multiple. So there might be the mums with bugs who comes during the day. There might be the high.
high pressure career working woman who goes there at 6 a.m. in the morning, leaves by 7 or goes there late at night. There might be some retiree ladies who are much more just after their wellness and maintenance and feeling good. And there might be a few others in between. So really important to map out, observe and ask or look on their website who goes there, who consumes this service or if it's a brand.
who buys from that brand. Get really clear on who that is and create a bit of a persona. You also want to then have a look at, what's the price point? What's the price that people pay in this case, the gym, on a monthly basis? Yeah, because let's say at that gym, so we've identified the three audiences. There's the cherry lady, there's the
There's the mom and there's the high-pressure career woman. Well, how much are they spending there? Is because are these gyms premium gyms and do people spend $100 a week there? Or is it kind of like a real budgety $15 a week gym? Very important because if I go there for budget service, I'm also only expecting
budget products. Yeah. So the price point is very important. Even though these people could be going there and they have money, but the mindset when I go to a budget facilities, I buy budget. If I go to a premium facility, I expect everything to be premium. Okay. So that's important. And then we want to be super clear on what other products might they already be selling. Yeah. And how could
Nina Huchthausen (07:13.585)
potentially your product work into that range or help them sell more because of your product might be a magnet product versus an accelerated product. And also get super clear, what services do they sell? Could the product be an add-on to a service? Let's say at that gym, there is a massage therapist. Yeah.
or a physiotherapist and they use a lot of oils and gels and you have an oil or gel, like a magnesium gel, then that could be an ideal thing for if you were to reach out to this gym to particular pitched up product to the therapists to unsell. So have a look. Who goes there? Their price point.
and other products and services that is being sold at that gym. And then you want to ask yourself, number one, can I serve this customer? Just do my products, support them, and especially at that price point. Because if the customers go there at a low price point, but we have a premium product, there might be a mismatch there and vice versa. Yeah. But you want to then step back and say, can I serve this customer?
And if you're like, yes, maybe you can serve all customer groups, only certain customer groups, and identify how big that market is. Because let's say you have the magnesium gel and you've identified, OK, well, those women who see a therapist is the older generation.
But then you notice, OK, well, there's only one therapist, and that therapist is only there on Tuesdays and Thursdays every two weeks because
Nina Huchthausen (09:19.493)
there aren't that many elderly ladies who actually require that service, then you might realize, maybe the audience overall that I can sell my product to is quite small. So get an understanding of that. Who goes there? How big is the audience price point, products and services they sell? And then you want to ask yourself, can I serve the customer and is the audience big enough? If yes, well, then let's find an opportunity. Okay.
Now, how do you find the opportunity? This is step number two. The opportunity is always a pain point, a business pain point or business fear or something that the gym owner in this case or the owner of the business or the owner of the brand might be looking for in order to grow their business further. So there's an opportunity or a pain point or fear or struggle because ultimately
If we can tie our product to helping them solve that pain point, solve the fear, create that opportunity, help them grow more, make more money.
That's when we are on the money. Because any successful business, they are always in business of creating new opportunities to grow their business. And they're always in business of solving a pain point that they haven't been able to solve. Now, edit gym overarchingly. A pain point that is pretty much universal is the amount of money that we can make per customer.
because it's pretty much capped. It's a monthly recurring revenue, but it's fixed. If my membership is $50 a week, I'm making $50 a week on my member. Now, we got costs. We got staff costs. We got rent costs, which most of the time, a lot of money. And we got other outgoings, such as water and electricity. And we can't continue to maintain our machines.
Nina Huchthausen (11:31.577)
So there is a lot of fixed costs. And with the capped revenue, it means that you're constantly having to bring on new customers and you need to make sure that your customers are staying. So if you can help them dial up the monthly revenue per customer or weekly revenue or overarching revenue per customer, that's when you are definitely
can help them solve a big pain point and create an opportunity. Now, every business is different and you want to really analyze what specifically would be a thing for them to either address or to create. But just in the interest of let's stick with the gym, absolutely that. And there are a lot of service businesses that are in the same struggle. hairdresser. there's money is tied to time.
You can only charge so much. So if you have products that can help them charge customers more or get them in more often, amazing. Same with the doctor. Because there's only so much that a doctor can charge for a certain treatment. So they make a lot of money through unselling other products.
So finding the opportunity is paramount because if you...
approach a brand partner or a potential service partner. And the only thing you're pitching is your product. Because this is not the core thing that they are doing, because you're selling them an ad on an extension to their business, it will get really hard for you to get traction. But if you can walk in with the key thing of pointing out a challenge or an opportunity that exists in their business,
Nina Huchthausen (13:30.555)
and how you as a partner can help solve that through your product, that's when people start having a conversation with you. Now, by the way, help you. This is exactly what we do as part of the tribe. If you ever struggle with this and you're like, can't find the opportunity, make sure you reach out. I'll put the link in the show note to our private Facebook group. Join that. Ask the question.
I want to help you with this. yeah, make sure you reach out if you're like, I don't know what the specific pain point or opportunities. Post it in the group. OK, now let's continue. So the third thing is after you found the opportunity and you know your customers are in there and you're like, my gosh, I'm excited. I'm excited. They're selling to my people and there's an opportunity that I can help them realize or problem to solve.
Then you need to think about, who specifically am I pitching to? Meaning, who is the owner and who is the decision maker? So you want to find that out. And I always hear this, how would I even find this out? Guys, the internet is your best friend. Yeah? The internet is your best friend. If you Google that, if you have a look on LinkedIn, if you look on Asic even, who owns a certain company, you can find out the name.
Yeah, chat GPT can also be a great resource. it's you just need to find your way around Google, really. So who are you pitching to? The decision maker. But it's not just about the name, but then maybe having a little look. Again, LinkedIn is your best friend when it comes to other businesses and business owners to think about what are they motivated by to do a deal with you?
Yeah.
Nina Huchthausen (15:30.228)
What is the most motivating factor? And this is a little bit of a nuanced question. But let me talk you through a few motivators to do business, because of course, doing business requires a little bit of effort and time to do. So if we can figure out what is their personal driver when it comes to either solving a pain point or creating a business opportunity, and you can talk to that.
Absolutely, absolutely. It will be easy for you to put your product forward and to put yourself forward as a win-win creating business partner. So what could this be? Number one, money. So there are some business owners out there that don't really care about anything else. Yeah, it's all about the money for them. Now, how do you spot those people?
is probably they might have some aggressive advertising going on. You might have seen them in the news in some case, but they also openly talk about that. Maybe even in your very first initial conversation, right, that they want to go get straight to the point. Straight to the point is always the money situation. Yeah. But you can also read that quite clearly on their website. Why? How? Probably in the absence of
having a strong vision or having something stronger in terms of mission or what they want to change in the world. If it's not about that and if they are very aggressive with, as I said, their sales marketing, highly likely they are highly motivated by money. OK, that means, well, when we talk, the first thing that we can mention or will mention is how much money is in it for them.
versus other people are lot more motivated by helping others, right? Making a difference, creating an impact. And that you can very clearly read on anyone's website because that's what they lead with on their homepage. And you can, it's weaved through their messaging that it's for them, but they really want to achieve is helping others, solving a problem, helping them feel better.
Nina Huchthausen (17:51.509)
creating more wellness, more ease. If that's what they're leading with everywhere in their advertising, start with that. Start with that and share as part of your pitch at the beginning of the conversation that that's what you're motivated by and that you would love to partner up with someone who has the same driver. Yeah. And then you want to show them, how can you, by you partnering with them,
help them serve their community, their people even better and create more wellness, more ease or whatever their mission is.
The third angle that you could take that people could be highly motivated by is uniqueness. Because whatever they do, they want to be different. For them, it's not so much about the money. For them, it's not so much about making an impact, but being different in the market, standing out, popping, doing whatever it takes. Now, that would mean your product has to be on that
bandwagon, right? That whatever uniqueness means or difference means, you need to be that and you need to help them amplify that uniqueness. Now, if you don't have a product that is unique at all, yeah, and doesn't really align with what they are driven by in terms of uniqueness, you might not want to reach out to them because if that's most important to them and you are not,
Nina Huchthausen (19:27.999)
they're probably not going to stock you or create a partnership with you because it's not aligned with what they're motivated by. Okay? So that's a really important thing to really hand to heart figure out before you invest the time starting the conversation.
Now, next point is avoiding risk. Yeah. So for them, could be anything they do. They might do anything and everything in order to avoid any type of risk or challenge or misconception in their business. So let's say if you are a brand that could help them create more cloud or more reputation or be seen as
Let's say you have a really awesome skincare range and it's been awarded three times by being the safest product on the planet. And these guys are all about avoiding risk. Well, if you can prove that you've been awarded by the United Nations being the most safest skincare product on the planet. Well, absolutely.
they would be drawn to that because it creates more safety that that spills over into their brain. And of course, they would only want to do business with brands that have so much testing, so much support, so much backing behind it. It's not even funny. So it's really, really important to get that understanding. Not just what's the business opportunity, what is the decision maker driven by?
Of course, if they are being driven by money, we need to create them. We need to create a really juicy offer. Yeah, we can't just be giving them more souls because they want to see big money. But that is very easily done by just structuring your pricing and your offering in a way that it sounds really big and juicy. OK, so that was step three. So we've just gone through.
Nina Huchthausen (21:39.517)
really identifying their customers, finding the opportunity, then delving deeper in who specifically you're pitching to. And then you want to go back and look at your brand and your product. Because now we need to match up based on what we've just identified to see, how can we match your brand or your product against that? So one key thing to figure out for you to get clear on is your product.
a magnet that attracts customers onto their website, into their gym, into the clinic, into that store? Or is it an on-sell item? Yeah. Now,
for if it was a gym and you were selling the magnesium rollers, I'm probably not going to join that gym in order to get my hands on the magnesium roller, right? So it's much more of an on sale item. If it is an on sale item, then we want to think about, well, what on sale opportunities do we either help them create or do they already have in place? Yeah. Because in order to on sale anything,
We probably need to educate a few people about the role on product to use it and to talk about to their customers. But we also need to create shelf space and education material for this to happen.
Now, another thing that you want to think about is does it beautify the store, the clinic, the shelves? Does it make it look hot? Because no matter which brand, service provider, retailer, whoever we're talking about, if it can make my place, my area, my website look better?
Nina Huchthausen (23:38.655)
Big selling point, right? Because there's no one ever says, I'm already looking so shit hot, nothing can get better. And the eye sells. When we first step into any space, if the space looks really good, it makes me feel a lot more welcome and comfortable than if the space does not. Yeah? And I also want to hang out there more. So that's a big thing. So let's see, can you tick that off? Or?
This maybe your product doesn't look amazing, but it communicates a lot of cloud and safety. So for the person who wants the reputation on avoiding risk, can be a really important thing to do. Whereas for the one that want to be unique and different, maybe not ideal.
Now then, step number three, when we're looking at your brand and your product, let's have a look at an opportunity for a subscription. Do you have a product in your range or something part of your brand that makes it easy for, let's say in this case, the gym owner, create revenue recurrence versus once off?
So going back to the Rolla ideal.
Nina Huchthausen (25:04.205)
If I was to start, let's say I'm going to put myself into the shoes of the gym owner. And I'm like, yeah, cool. OK, this roller sounds super interesting. I have an audience for that because no, I actually have five busyos, busy Monday to Friday. They could all be selling this product. Now, it's not that core thing to do, right? So is there a way that this roller
potentially, and this is all leading questions. Yeah, but let's entertain me here. This roller could only last for 30 days so that every 30 days when they come for their treatment, we could get them to pick up another roller and maybe even potentially as part of their treatment plan, we give them a discount to get a roller a month over the next six months at a more special price. Or could we even roll this into the gym membership?
because it's a roller that you want to continuously use, not just with your physiotherapy, but continued every time you hit the gym. Absolutely ideal, because that means for the gym, more set and forget revenue. And for you, it means, you also know the more subscriptions we sell, the more orders we're going to flow in. But at the same time, it reduces their risk.
for the product collecting dust. Because if I can sell this and really incorporate it, then we only need to set up this subscription once. Or potentially, is your product a once-off purchase product, but ideal and people will be super hungry and excited about it as soon as they join the gym. And if they are like, well, cool, we have 50 new members joining each month.
If I was to only sell this to five new members because it comes at a really high price and it has a big margin, bang up. They will be super happy about that.
Nina Huchthausen (27:05.749)
That's what you want to get clear about because number one, they will ask you about this. And number two, you want to be super clear on what is the revenue opportunity here and how often would that revenue or could that revenue occur per customer? Okay. Now, if this is getting too complex, make sure you post them to our private Facebook group and let me explain this to you further, but it's a very important thing.
definitely to be ticked off when you do a deal like this. Now, and also I know this might sound complex, but if you think about it, if you're spending three or four hours setting up and closing this deal, and this could make you several thousands of dollars each month, that return on investment is so crazy high, you could not, you could not ever achieve anything like that by selling direct.
at markets or events. It's an absolutely worthwhile thing to attempt. Yes, there are a few things we need to get right, but the reward is extraordinary and it boosts your brand awareness and your growth like crazy. So just, I just want to throw that in, in case anyone is kind of like, oh my gosh, there's a lot of things. A few, okay. But again, we can help you in our private Facebook group.
And of course, this is exactly what we're doing as part of our tribe.
Now, the next thing is what's the price point? What is the margin? And what's the order value? Because why do we want to get that right? We want to have that written down and be super clear because when we start pitching, we need to be clear. What would it take to unlock certain wholesale order discounts?
Nina Huchthausen (29:05.301)
What margin am I getting in how much or how little do I need to order in order to to get to get this deal across the line?
Nina Huchthausen (29:25.363)
And then the next point, how will you help them market and sell your products? This is probably one of the most forgotten but super critical point to get the deal across, right? Because there's one thing of pointing out, hey, you got a challenge, Jimona, and here's how I can solve it. And here's the product. And yes, every month you could be selling it on subscription.
That all sounds good, but that engine needs to be started. Yeah. And as a gym owner, I'm not seasoned in selling magnesium roll-ons. So how are you going to help me market and sell that roll-on product? Because if I'm going to place a $1,000, $2,000 order, I have high stake in that product, and I do not want it to fail.
The worst partnership I could probably ever imagine is someone selling this to me and telling me all about the big opportunity. And then I never hear from them and they don't help me sell this because I need to find a way now, get this product promoted and get it to my people. So you really want to be clear on how are you going to make this relationship a win-win, no brainer partnership, because what is in it for you?
you have somebody else sell the product for you, meaning you do not have to do that work. So key thing is, how do we set up that person that's going to do the work for you for success and give them everything they need in order to sell this product like hotcakes? So what you want to work through, and you might already have everything for that, but get really clear on what this looks like for that gym, is how are you going to drive
people into their store, into their shop, into their gym. Maybe through social media collaborations. Maybe you do that through newsletters that you send to a specific audience that you have in your database that could be going to that gym. Maybe you do that through really good staff training, staff at the counter that can point people to the product, as well as really working out with
Nina Huchthausen (31:47.014)
the therapist as to how they can mention it in a non-salesy way. How maybe you do that through educational posters about the key challenges that people have and when magnesium can really help them. Maybe you do that through customer education flyers so people can take these home and these flyers could be given to anyone who joins the gym, for example.
Maybe you could do this through providing point of sale display units that make the product look really attractive and for customers to engage in and learn more about.
This could be an intro offer where you're like, cool, OK, let's sell this product for 20 % off. And I will cut 10 % of my margin, you do 10 % of your margin. We've run this for 30 days, and here's the advertising campaign for it. Or could you potentially be doing in-store demos, giveaway testers for people to really experience the product? Now, with magnesium, could be.
Now I'm uncertain, but I would say if I was to test the magnesium roll-on, let's say at the start of my workout, and I put this on and see how it felt afterwards, or even after a workout, try it and see the next day, I could probably feel a big difference. So there might be a bunch of more things that you could be doing to help the market and sell your products. But this, friends, is absolutely critical because
This will be the biggest reservation for them to do the deal with you. And if you can give them peace of mind, I'll be here for you. We are doing this together. And I want to help you turn this into an amazing business growth experience. And I'm here every step along the way. Then you're going to build a partnership for life. And now think about that revenue opportunity. Imagine.
Nina Huchthausen (33:55.504)
by spending three hours setting up this deal and then every month you get a thousand dollar order in. Three hours, 12 grand in 12 months. That's unheard of return on investment if you think about it. So get these points right. And then you just need to do one final thing that you want to have in your back pocket, but it's important to have that stepped out for yourself. And that is the contract.
because you do not want to do these deals without having a contract in place on what the gym owner can or cannot do with the product, how they can promote it, what they can claim, what they can't, but also how they need to store the product, who owns the product until it's paid, what the delivery timeline is like, payment terms, and return policy. Now, you want to ask your lawyer. I'm not a lawyer. What are all the elements of your contract are?
but definitely have a contract in place because you do not want anything happen to your brand or your product. And at the same time, you want to make sure that both you and them are completely taken care of and it feels like a partnership. And a contract in which you stipulate your expectations and align on their expectations can really help you to stay on the same page. OK?
So who are their customers? Find the opportunity. Then specifically, who's the decision maker you're pitching to? And you want to have a look at your brand and product. And then you want to think about how will you help the market and sell your products to make a win-win, no-brainer partnership? And your final contractual details. If you work through these points, and then you start reaching out and start with
the key opportunity that you see for them or the key pain point, and then weave in what they are probably most motivated by, start the conversation that way before you then go into what you offer and how it works. That's how you're going to get them hooked and start and pull through that deal. Now, there's, of course, there might be objections and there might be a whole bunch of other details. Again.
Nina Huchthausen (36:17.626)
Come to the Facebook group, ask those questions if you want to do this. First step, course, download the list and start working through. And if you need more support, reach out to us. OK? But I hope that in a nutshell, this episode has ultimately given you a whole lot of knowledge and wisdom for you to tackle some big partnerships that you always want to reach out to and maybe haven't yet. Because, boy, this can be a life-changing thing for you.
And it doesn't require any more work. It literally means that you're setting up an income stream on autopilot. And once you've done one deal, the second and third will be easier and easier. And within just a few months, you'll be able to see, my gosh, recurring consistent revenue on autopilot. And I'm only dealing with a few people, and they sell for me. Absolutely brilliant.
Have an awesome day, my friends. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Make sure you like it, you share it with anyone who could benefit from it. Make sure you subscribe if you haven't yet so that every week you get a reminder on the next podcast. And if you love this episode, I would so appreciate if you could give it a review because it helps other park-based businesses like yours to find this podcast and to also get so much goodness from it to help you grow and scale your business.
Have an awesome day, my friends.
